A former inmate of one of the island’s toughest prisons — the St Catherine Adult Correctional Centre — is heaping praise on the correctional officers at the facility whom he says have helped him to be a better man.

“They come in like my mother and father. The correctional officers… dem is so professional. They do their jobs in such a way where no space no deh deh fi error,” ex-convict Hugh Goode told the Jamaica Observer in an interview a few weeks after his release on November 16.

Goode added: “The correctional department doesn’t really get the highlight they should get. Everybody knows about the police, everybody knows about the army, but nobody knows about the correctional department and you have a lot of activities they do.”

Goode spent five years behind bars for the murder of his common-law wife in 2014, a reduced sentence, which he claimed was a result of him being previously diagnosed with a mental illness.

When the Sunday Observer visited Goode last week, he sat quietly on his verandah in Rockfort, east Kingston and spoke in a hushed tone, at times pausing as he recounted the weeks leading up to the morning he had the final argument with his common-law wife, which ended with a fatal stab wound to the neck.

In the midst of his recollection, Goode displayed remorse for how the circumstances unfolded. However, he expressed that while imprisoned he was treated far better than when he was a free man.

“Before prison I was going through depression (and) emotional stress… they deal with me better than people who deal with me in regular life. I was going through a lot and no one seemed to care much about my health or anything,” Goode said. “I remember when I got sentenced I was worried because the stigma is out there about wardens mistreating prisoners and so I had that in mind and was worried.”

According to Goode, his arrival at the Spanish Town-based prison gave him the shock of his life.

He said: “I was expecting to be manhandled and roughed up, but I was actually welcomed with open arms and shown love. They ensured I had everything, I was given medication, that I stayed on course with the medication and was exposed to a number of programmes within the facility to make me a better man.”

As part of his sentence, Goode was required to participate in a number of rehabilitative programmes that the correctional services provide. These include sitting Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) subjects, entrepreneurial courses and being a part of learning intervention tools that tackle conflict resolution.

“I met a lot of different people and also learnt a lot. It taught me things I never learnt in school. In high school I never learnt history, social studies, not even office administration. I did four subjects while in prison and got two — office administration and human and social biology. For the history and social studies, I did well but never structured paper three how it should have been structured. I got the opportunity to return and do three more subjects in May so I am going to go back in and do them,” he said, adding that among the other programmes he appreciated the Step Out and Strive project that exposed him to non-violent methods of conflict resolution.

But, apart from gaining additional CSEC subjects and a certificate in data operations from HEART Trust/NTA, Goode’s greatest achievement behind bars is being the recipient of a scholarship. In January he will pursue an Associate of Arts in Renewable Energy at the Jamaica Theological Seminary. He shared that he is ecstatic and cannot wait to begin this journey of his life.

Moreover, he said that while the experience has made him a better man, he is appealing to members of society to find peaceful ways to resolve issues as crime makes no sense.

“It’s not only those who were robbed or killed are victims. The person who heard of the crime, family members and people in the surroundings are all victims. To those in domestic situations don’t be afraid to seek help. Don’t think oh you’re a man and you not soft. Not only women alone have feelings in domestic situations, you have men who are hurting more than even the women.

“I’m saying talk about it and seek help before it gets to something you cannot take back or change. If I was given the attention I got from the correctional department and the probational department to me as a man when I was going through my time, I wouldn’t reach to have to be in a situation with someone who ended up losing their life,” Goode shared.